How DoubleTree Little Rock is Heating Up the World of Online Marketing

The DoubleTree Little Rock Hotel is warm through and through. No matter what time of year, visitors are met with the balmy Arkansas air. Guests who choose the DoubleTree Little Rock Arkansas Downtown Hotel are greeted with a warm, southern welcome and a delicious, fresh chocolate chip cookie. These are signature ways of welcoming guests ”home” to Little Rock’s 3 Star/3 Diamond Hotel!

DoubleTree Little Rock’s warm demeanor also comes through in their online presentation, where their spacious accommodations, city views and popular amenities are extensively displayed through VBrochure.

“…A video is more valuable than a still image. As a result, the VBrochure system was chosen because we needed a way to syndicate video. VBrochure provides all of the functionality we need.”
Doubletree Little Rock took their success one step further and utilized VFM Leonardo’s BestSTART Professional Services Package, using VBrochure to promote their top services and amenities. By customizing tabs that reflect their unique benefits and hotel personality, along with writing and inserting descriptive captions for each media item to add detail, this hotel further captures the interest of the online shopper. The BestSTART services guaranteed the hotel’s online merchandising were up and running quickly, utilizing every aspect of what VBrochure has to offer including VBrochure’s new Facebook App with booking capability.

“With the BestSTART service, we were even more confident that we would see positive results. It made sure that our online experience aligns with what our target guests are looking for, where they’re looking for it,”says Harris.

Harris explains one of the benefits of having their visual media in multiple online locations. “Because Google places a higher search result value on sites that have video, it was seen as a way to have the hotel appear stronger within those search results. Video provides more of a complete experience of the hotel than a still image.”

Harris is keen on being able to track their online marketing spend and is pleased that VBrochure provides Little Rock a streamlined way to evaluate their progress and make changes where they see fit.

“We believe that VBrochure has had a positive impact on bookings so far. We are also leveraging the statistics provided through the reporting and analytics module on how many times the VBrochure is viewed and from where.”

As social media and mobile have become a more and more integral part of online marketing, Little Rock has gleaned some tidbits of wisdom to pass on:

“Consider the audience you’re trying to market to and do it in ways that are familiar and comfortable for them. For example, social media and smartphone apps are important to the younger generation of travelers. If they can’t book through these vehicles, then they won’t book at all.”

Having stepped ahead of the competition with a well-planned and executed online strategy, Little Rock is becoming recognized among travelers, while offering a warm place, a warm welcome…and a cookie.

Leonardo is a technology company serving the global hospitality industry. We provide e-marketers at hotel brands, management companies, hotel properties and travel websites with technology solutions that improve the way they present their hotels online to travel shoppers.